Democracy sausages sizzle 12,000km away in New York City as Australians vote overseas

Australia’s iconic tradition of a democracy sausage has popped up in New York City as overseas voting gets underway — and “Americans love it as much as Australians”. SEE THE VIDEO.

Australia’s greatest election tradition has made it all the way to the streets of New York City in an epic mashup of cultural icons we never saw coming – Aussie democracy sausages served out of a US Halal food cart.

As quintessential yellow cabs whizzed by on Manhattan’s third avenue, Aussies voting at the Australian Consulate ahead of the federal election were treated to a taste of home with the traditional sausage and onions on bread.

Curious New Yorkers, always lured by a line, also got in on the action and their verdict – “America should do this too”.

The event, hosted by Australia’s New York Consul-General Heather Ridout and Aussie Josh Pugh, who runs the America Josh expat guide, saw a huge spike in voter turnout over the two days it was held.

Australian Josh Pugh, who runs the Aussie expat guide America Josh, at the New York democracy sausage sizzle.

“This is the biggest polling centre in America for Australian voting, we’ll have thousands of people vote at the consulate so Americans have loved our sausages and in fact I think they could adopt it, they’d probably have an American hotdog democracy sausage,” Ms Ridout said.

“The reason behind it was to really celebrate Australian democracy and how special we know it is.

“The reaction has been amazing, Americans love it as much as Australians.”

Mr Pugh, an Aussie who has lived in the US for almost a decade and runs the expat survival guide America Josh, said it had been special to bring a little taste of Australia to the Big Apple.

“I think a lot of New Yorkers especially would love it,” he said.

“Because I think when people vote here in New York it’s synonymous with long lines and standing in the weather all day and having to wait as opposed to Australia where the first thing that comes to mind when you think of voting is getting a sausage afterwards.

“It absolutely won’t be the last time this has been an absolute success to put it lightly, we’ve had hundreds of Aussies come past we’ve had people seek it out and actually plant their voting around making sure they can get a sausage so we will be back…”.

Aussies Melanie Gong, who moved to the US six months ago, and Matthew Vernon, who arrived a year ago, were among the hundreds of voters who timed their trip to the election booth with the sausage sizzle.

“We just saw it on Instagram and we had to vote and I’ve been dying for a snag,” Mr Vernon said.

“It’s great. It’s been a couple of months since we’ve been home and it’s good to have a sausage.”

Originally published as Democracy sausages sizzle 12,000km away in New York City as Australians vote overseas